Fall Cleanup

The major project for this fall was pruning trees. The large shade trees were overgrown and the fruit trees were getting mangy and ragged looking. Here is Andrew and Keith tying large limbs together and pulling them up the steep driveway to a burn pile at the back of the property where they will be burned by a good neighbour in the winter.  

Cutting back the two huge Walnut trees was left to Ken and I. They provide all day shade for the parked vehicles in the heat of the summer. We are hoping they grow back in a bit before the hot July days come. We cut them back hard. Pete provided an extension chain saw without which we could not have done it. Amazingly, we both still have two hands and two feet.

Here is the big pile of green prunings that will dry out in the cold winter months and be eventually burned against the slope of the hill, thanks to neighbour Bill.

We have several Apricot trees, one of which yielded watery tasteless Apricots. We decided to cut it down and this is what is left of it. We hope we cut the right one as nobody could recall which tree it actually was. Come to think of it, this is probably an Italian Prune Plum Tree. Oh well. We have too many of those too.  

There are plenty of these exposed stems that will be susceptible to winter freeze but we could not take the time to do this in Spring when it is optimal. Our purpose was to decrease the fruit yield as it mostly goes to waste anyway. A bit of winter kill would be OK.

Here is Herta doing a 'hard prune' on the grape vines. The grapes this year were phenomenal.

Here is Ken finishing off a few stragglers with the long handled pruning pole. The larger limbs were cut with a chain saw. These trees were so large and thick when we started that you could not see through them at all.

The Kubota tractor was a real lifesaver. Will, Andrew, and Keith were our drivers for the weekend. We had rain on both Saturday and Sunday and we all got soaked. Monday was a warm sunny day, reminiscent of summer days.

Margarete did most of the grape vine pruning and we will give her all the credit when we reap a bountiful harvest next fall.

Will was fearless and climbed to the heights of the shade trees with his reciprocating saw and took down some substantial limbs. The rest of us were too chicken and would have opted to have the limbs eventually fall on the roof one day and then only climb to the height of the roof to do repairs.

Keith used the small garden tractor/riding mower and trailer to clean up all the small branches and leaves after the large pieces were gone. Thanks to him and Andrew the property looks very tidy and organised now. We could not have done it all if these two guys had not volunteered to come. Don't tell the neighbours we parked on their lawn.

It now looks like a hippie who just got back from his first haircut in years. I must also thank busylizzy, Herta, and Margarete for providing snacks, drinks, and amazing meals. We were well fed indeed, including a full blown Turkey Dinner on Sunday evening.  

What is missing here? Oh my, it's the dock. After 25 years of swaying, rocking, rolling and squeaking, Matt dismantled it and burned it. It is the end of an era. How many hours of entertainment did it give the grand kids as they stood at the end and threw rocks into the lake? But, sever winter damage and wear and tear from the many hot summers took a toll on the old floating platform and we put it out of its misery.   

The big willow tree beside the boat got a hard prune too. You cannot kill a weeping willow that grows beside the water so we know it is coming back. It has become a catchall for all sorts of things over the years and most of the dangly things have grown right into the tree.  

And in the end, we have a lot of new firewood for the beach side fires in the summer months. This little stack used to be a large part of the main shade tree (an Elm) that hung right over the corner of the house and provided cool shade on those hot July days. There is still plenty of shade and the trees will continue to grow. We left a good sized limb for the hammock so we can still snooze in the coolest spot on the property. Let the winter winds blow now. We have done our part.